On March 7, 2020, the Prime Minister held the 18th meeting of the Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters at the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the meeting, a discussion was held on the response to the novel coronavirus (COVID 19).

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“With regard to the prevention of the further spread of infections of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we are imposing significant burdens upon the public. On the side of the economy, for the time being, we will prioritize employment and business continuity above all and exert every effort. While we have recently enhanced the Employment Adjustment Subsidies to a great extent, for parents who are forced to take leave from work in response to our request for temporary school closures, we will address the issue of their salary during leave, no matter if they are in permanent or non-permanent employment, through a subsidy covered by national outlay. Furthermore, we will support various local initiatives in response to the situations faced by communities, such as after-school club activities and the use of classrooms at school, with those costs fully covered by national expenditure. We will also extend tailored support to those affected in response to the impacts of the suspension of school lunch programs. In addition to these efforts, I ask you to conduct an expedited consideration of support for those who are in difficulty due to temporary leave or unemployment due to the impacts of the further spread of infections, to enable them to rebuild their daily lives.

We will introduce strong measures to support financing of micro-, small- and medium-sized business operators facing extremely severe conditions across the nation, without being constrained by past practices, so that they can continue their businesses with certainty. We will establish a special loan program under the Japan Finance Corporation and other financial institutions to provide real interest-free, unsecured loans for micro-, small-, and medium-sized business operators who are facing a sudden decline in sales.

We will apply these measures, including liquidity support worth 500 billion yen in the first batch of emergency responses, retrospectively, so as to be fully prepared.

In addition, for mid-sized and large enterprises, I ask you to advance strong liquidity support, including giving instructions for operations to facilitate crisis response.

Furthermore, liquidity support by private financial institutions as well as rapid and flexible responses in condition changes, such as the grace period on recurring debts, are also important. As the Financial Services Agency is to order the submission of a report pursuant to the Banking Act and other relevant laws, I instruct you to properly monitor the status of the support efforts of private financial institutions, including changing loan conditions.

With respect to the second batch of emergency response measures, we will put an emphasis on 1) the development of preventive measures and medical treatment structures, 2) responses to issues caused by the temporary school closures, 3) responses to shrinking businesses and employment protection, and 4) emergency measures that are ready for changes in the situation and others, as its pillars. We aim to compile them on March 10 and I instruct each ministry to accelerate their respective efforts to devise measures towards the target date.

Moreover, with respect to an amendment to include novel coronavirus in the scope of the Act on Special Measures for Pandemic Influenza and New Infectious Diseases Preparedness and Response, we are making preparations to submit it to the Diet early next week. I instruct the relevant ministers, in particular Minister Nishimura, to exert every effort towards the early submission of the bill and its enactment.”